Student could face six years for insulting President

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The prosecution asked the West Jakarta District Court on Monday to sentence a student to six years in prison for insulting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla during a protest in June.

Prosecutor Agung Ardyanto said Fahrur "Paunk" Rohman, 20, a student at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, insulted the head of state in a speech during a protest organized by the Alliance of People's Movements and the Try Soeharto Movement. The protest took place on the campus of National University in West Jakarta.

"The defendant violated the Criminal Code by insulting the head of state," he told the court.

Agung also accused Paunk of distributing insulting posters and flyers during the protest.

The prosecutor said the posters depicted the President and Vice President, with the words "No Trust", "Down" and "We can't take it anymore".

He said the flyers contained the words, "SBY-JK have failed and betrayed reform. Down with SBY-JK right now."

Paunk is being tried under an article in the Criminal Code that was enacted during the Dutch colonial era to protect colonial rulers from defamation. Legal scholars and human rights activists have for years advocated for the article to be scrapped, arguing it infringes on people's freedom of expression.

Meanwhile, two students were detained by the Jakarta Police on Monday after throwing rotten eggs at Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Hendarman Supandji at the House of Representatives.

Jayabaya University student Fariz, 22, a member of the Anti-Manipulation at State Enterprises Student Movement (Geram BUMN), allegedly threw three rotten eggs at Hendarman during a recess in a meeting between the Attorney General's Office and House Commission III for legal affairs.

According to the student group's coordinator, Akbar Kiahaly, about seven security guards tackled Fariz and another Geram BUMN member, Dipa, who is a student at the Institute of Social and Political Sciences.

"They beat up Fariz and Dipa and kicked them in the face," he alleged.

Akbar said the group threw rotten eggs at Hendarman in protest over the failure of the Attorney General's Office to prosecute graft suspects.

"There were 20 of us who made it into the House and we brought three kilograms of rotten eggs."